On the contrary, coming from the world of mature SQL systems (like SQL Server), I was horrified to learn that MySQL supports neither transactional DDL nor onlin

On the contrary, coming from the world of mature SQL systems (like SQL Server), I was horrified to learn that MySQL supports neither transactional DDL nor online schema updates. These are taken for granted in premium SQL databases, and to a lesser extent in good free ones like PostgreSQL. (Raise your hand if you've seen the polite suggestion from the Django (South?) team to use a "real" database when your migrate command fails...) Put simply: MySQL was written by and for people whose time isn't valuable. I.e. the assumption is that it's cheaper to throw low-grade people and brainpower at workarounds (OpEx) than to pay to have the problems avoided in the first place (CapEx). There's a reason people shell out the money for big-iron databases: the math can be easy when you factor in the costs saved (both the direct costs and the opportunity costs).